


Eating Your Words

by ExceedinglyRegular (DrakeRamorayIII)



Category: Buzzfeed Tasty: Eating Your Feed (Web Series), Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Slip of Tongue, fluff (sort of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 16:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16520153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrakeRamorayIII/pseuds/ExceedinglyRegular
Summary: (Based off the 'Eating Your Feed: Mozzarella' episode.)"Take care now.""Love you...""I do notlovehim."What is Niki trying to imply? Just because Andrew ends his calls politely doesn't mean he's in love. Or is he?





	Eating Your Words

"Take care now." The other man on the line says his goodbye, and Andrew pulls his phone away from his ear to end the call. 

"Love you..." Niki mutters quietly, making fun of how politely he spoke on the phone. This garners a loud burst of laughter from Annie and a quiet snicker from Adam, who are filming them.

Andrew lets his hand fall to the counter, with an exasperated but amused grin. He was not expecting her little snipe and also did not have a good comeback to that.

"I do not _love_ him," is all he can manage. He knows it's just a joke but it is making him a little weird, in a way that he can't quite explain. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing..." Niki shrugs, not looking up from the laptop. She continues scrolling through some recipes, leaving Andrew to simmer in his own discomfort while Adam and Annie recover from their laughing fits. 

"Okay! Uh, so..." Andrew says to the cameras once everyone's somewhat settled again. "...yeah, this cheese store has liquid rennet. So we're in luck." Andrew pauses to look at Niki who is still too absorbed in reading up the instructions, then he turns to Adam who tilts his head to the side questioningly. "Shall we get going...?"

"Yeah, let's go," Adam agrees as he turns off the camera then the rest of the recording equipment. Following his lead, Annie moves to shut off her camera and the filming lights. Niki closes the lid of the laptop and hands it back to Andrew (it's his after all) without saying anything.

Andrew deposits his computer at his desk while the rest of them head out to the car. When he's approaching the vehicle, he can see the crew laughing at something but he can only hear muffled giggling and no discernible words. Niki is the first to notice his arrival and shushes them. Weird. But Andrew doesn't bother to question them, they wouldn't tell him anyway, so what's the point?

For the entire duration of the car ride to the cheese store, Andrew keeps thinking about Niki's little remark and trying to figure out what she meant. She probably didn't mean anything by it really, it was just a joke but... that little jab from her has sent Andrew's mind spiraling down into an unhealthy overthinking cycle. You know, the kind that leaves you convinced that your friends actually hate you and that nobody truly cares about you...

Which is why Andrew aborted that train of thought early, in favor of figuring out what else to make with the cheese apart from pizza.

"How does focaccia sound?" Andrew wonders out loud, the girls turn to look at him but Adam remains focused on the road. Sensing their confusion, he clarifies. "Should we make some focaccia with the cheese?"

"Yeeeeesss! I'd love that!" Niki is bouncing up and down excitedly next to him in the her seat. Annie flashes a wide grin of approval, while Adam makes a noise that can theoretically be classified as 'interested'.

"Focaccia isn't usually made with cheese but... I guess it sounds pretty cool," Adam points out. Then they spend the rest of the trip chattering about what else they could 'improve' by adding cheese to it.

When they finally get to the cheese store, their time there is actually pretty short as one of the employee was already waiting for them with the rennet. While Adam makes payment, Andrew and Niki gets some water for their dried out and overworked throats. Andrew downs his cup in two quick glugs while Niki is still sipping away when they leave the store.

As they make their way back to the car, Andrew takes the paper bag from Adam to inspect the little bottle of rennet. You know, just for curiosity sake. Suddenly Andrew's phone starts ringing. He fishes it out of his pocket with one hand to check who it is and... it's Steven. Which is weird because Steven doesn't normally call him asking through a text first. Maybe it's important, maybe it's an emergency...! What if he's in dange- oh GOD, JUST PICKING UP THE FUCKING PHONE ANDREW!

"What's up, Stev-" Andrew starts to greet but is immediately cut off by an overly excited Steven.

"Andrew! Where are you? I have something I need to show you!"

"What?" Steven could've just sent him a picture or something, unless he meant showing something in person which begs the question: how could he possibly show anything to Andrew from all the way over in New York. Unless... "Wait, you're-"

"Yes, I'm back in LA..." You can almost hear the eye-roll in his voice. " _Surprise!_ " Steven announces in the most sarcastic manner possible.

"Alright, geez... I just needed some context," Andrew replies monotonously but he's secretly very thrilled on the inside. Steven's back! He would never admit it in a million years but Andrew missed Steven so damn much when he moved to New York.

"Okay, okay, and you got it. Where. Are. You?" Steven asks again, showing no signs of calming down whatsoever which invite a small chuckle from Andrew.

"I'm at the Silver Lake cheese store... we bought stuff for Eating Your Feed. We're mak-"

"Cool, cool. Now get your ass back to the office!" Steven's impatience is adorable, Andrew smiles despite the rude interruption.

"Alright, goodbye..." Andrew mutter even as Steven continues to ramble on about how his time is precious. "...love you." Rolling his eyes fondly, Andrew ends the call before Steven has the chance to yak his ears off. He smiles happily at his phone, that was a cute exchange. It's always nice to hear from Ste-

OH FUCK, WHAT DID HE JUST SAY TO STEVEN?!

Around Andrew, his coworkers appears to have noticed what he just realized himself too.

"Did you just say-" Annie begins but Andrew ignores her, zeroing in on his own thoughts instead.

"Oh my god, I love him," Andrew blurts out to himself in disbelief. He is in love with Steven! This isn't exactly a completely brand new revelation to Andrew but he's never admitted it to himself, much less to anyone else, much less to Steven. Fuck, what if Steven hates him because of this? What is he going to do? What is he going to-

The vibration of his phone cuts short Andrew's little panic trip but when he checks the caller ID, the little trip turns into a full-out expedition.

"It's Steven! What the fuck do I do?!" Andrew looks up at the girls, wide-eyed and losing his fucking mind. 

"Pick it up!" Annie and Niki yells at the same time, startling Andrew who fumbles around with the ringing metal block in his hands trying his best to not drop either _it_ or the bag with the rennet in his other hand. This goes on for a few more seconds before he manages to accept the call.

"H-hello?" He tries to even out his voice and does his very best not to sound too flustered but fails miserably on both counts. There's only silence on the other end, which makes Andrew's fingers clamp down on hard. The pressure and sweat combined almost causes the phone to fly out of his hands. It's fortunate that _that_ didn't happen because when Steven speaks, it is the best damn thing Andrew has ever heard.

"Love you too."

And the line goes dead.

"What did he say?" Niki half-yells. Her eyes are almost popping out of their sockets. Annie is also eagerly waiting for a response. And that's when Andrew notices that Adam is looking concernedly at him from behind the cam- FUCK! THE CAMERA WAS ROLLING THIS WHOLE TIME?!

"N-Nothing..." Andrew attempts to walk around Adam to get behind the camera, but Adam puts a hand out to push him back into frame.

"Don't try to escape," Adam scolds.

Annie's smiling widely but Andrew just sort of grimaces at the camera, worried about how the entire exchange he had with Steven was recorded on camera. He knows for certain that Adam wouldn't put it in the episode if he told him not to (though Adam probably wouldn't do it in the first place because it doesn't fit the show). But the thought of having that footage floating about made Andrew uneasy.

"You should say something about the... rennet," Adam instructs, more towards Andrew who is holding the purchase but Niki picks up the slack.

"We got it! We got the liquid rennet we were looking for," Niki says to the camera but Adam frowns. Oh, what now?

"Hold it up, Andrew. Let the viewers see." Adam gestures upwards and Andrew begrudgingly holds up the little paper bag with both hands. "Again Niki? Maybe describe it a little this time."

"We have liquid _vegetable_ rennet." Andrew looks down into the bag to avoid Adam's piercing gaze, while Niki does a little shrug. "I don't know what that actually means but if it means cheese, I'm all for it."

"Okay, good." Adam flashes a thumbs up at them. Annie's already impatiently tugging on the door handle repeatedly, urging them to move faster so that she can get out of the afternoon heat.

"Now let's get out of here, we got cheese to make." While Andrew _is_ super eager to get back to the office, it's not the cheese he's excited about... he's actually dying to see Steven. Steven had just sort of admitted back that he loves Andrew, or maybe he's just saying it because...? Oh fuck, what if he's misreading all of it and Steven's just saying it as a joke? Looks like he's gonna be overthinking this too.

Maybe it's the traffic easing up but the ride back to the office is a hell lot quicker than the one from, which is good because Andrew had transformed into this stressed-out bundle of nerves not even five minutes in. Everyone else in the car also seemed eager to exit the vehicle as Andrew's nervous energy is highly contagious.

As they're pouring out of the car, a skittish Steven Lim bounds over. The rest of the crew make do with simple nods for greetings while they rush off into the building, partly to take shelter from whatever _this_ is, and partly to give the two men some privacy.

"Hi," Steven nervously greets. His hands are behind his back and he's rolling back and forth on his feet like a little kid. Andrew can feel himself mirroring the tension within his own body but instead of the cute little display that Steven has put out, Andrew finds all his muscles tightening up as he posture stiffens.

"Hey," Andrew replies back feebly. He doesn't know what to say at all. While in the car, he had come up with a million different ways to try and explain what happened, but all of that planning was for naught as the words abandoned him when he needs them the most... which is right now. Steven's smiling so sweetly and expectantly at him that the cool empty breeze in Andrew's mind suddenly grows hot and humid, then fuzzy and sparky.

"So... you love me, huh?" Steven asks, tilting his head to the side as if he isn't sure if he heard Andrew right earlier during the call. If he's as nervous and bashful as Andrew, it should be a good sign, right?

"Yeah, uh..." Andrew rubs the back of his neck to try and ease some of the tension there but to no avail. After another long silence, Andrew decides it's best to play it safe. "What were you going to show me?"

"Well, uh... it's um, not that important really..." Steven's hands are in front of him now, he presses his index fingers together anxiously and bites his lower lip. Andrew's about to question it when Steven contnues. "Can I... can I kiss you?"

Can he? Is he kidding? Andrew's been dreaming of this moment for years (but again, he will never admit it), he swallows anxiously and tries to says yes but just ends up squeaking a little, this prompts a tiny giggle from Steven.

With his voice not wanting to cooperate, Andrew can only smile softly and nod his head. Steven breaks out a huge grin that go all the way up to his eyes, while all his pearly whites come out to play. He bobs his head side to side, slowly trying to figure out the best way to approach. He takes a few more moments before seemingly throwing caution to the wind.

When Steven finally presses his lips against Andrew's, the tension melts out of both their bodies. Andrew finds his hands taking on a life of their own as they reach up to hold Steven's face. Their lips move slowly and tenderly, perfectly in sync as if they have done this a thousand times already. This isn't Andrew's first kiss, far from it, though he has never felt anything this right, this perfect. But maybe it has nothing to do with the actual kiss, maybe it has everything to do with the man in front of him... maybe it has everything to do with how badly he is in love with Steven.

It seems like Steven has similar thoughts too, as Andrew can feel him smile against his own lips. Their lips part briefly for air before meeting up again. It feels even better, and Andrew silently wonders if the next kiss will top this one. 

"We still have a video to film!" Adam suddenly yells out from some distance away, startling them both. Their noses unceremoniously smash together and they have to break off the kiss thanks to the pain inflicted by their stupid survival instincts. Andrew rubs his nose sorely and throws a glare at the direction of the voice. "Sorry!" Adam sheepishly back his way into the building, leaving the two men to groan over the hurting in peace.

"I gotta go," Andrew tells Steven, and the other man pouts. Well, that's not fair, Andrew doesn't want to leave either but his sense of responsibility is tugging him away. They're already behind schedule thanks to the trip to the cheese store, Adam would never forgive him if they overrun their schedule all because Andrew wanted some more smooches.

"We should talk about this... later, of course." Steven shrugs as if it's no big deal but Andrew can see the truth in his eyes, he's a little afraid of how that would go. Andrew looks him in the eye and gently squeezes his shoulder to reassure him.

"Yeah, we will. Don't worry, Steven, I-... I love you." Saying it for the second time is somehow more difficult than the first, but the warm feeling in his chest that comes with those words is something that Andrew could get used to.

"I love you too..." Steven leans in to give Andrew another kiss, this time on the cheek. Andrew heads off to the stage where they're filming, while Steven walks over to the main office building. Every few steps, Andrew would turn around to look at Steven and every single time, without fail, Steven will be looking over his shoulder, staring right back at him with a wide smile.

"I do not _love_ him," is the first thing that Andrew hears the instant he steps into the stage. Niki is repeating Andrew's earlier statement back to him, mumbling in a childish mocking voice. "Blah blah, ooh Steven, I love you... blah blah blah."

"Shut up, Nicola." Andrew pretends to be annoyed but it's so hard when he can still feel the tingle on his lips, the ghost of Steven's mouth pressing against his. He turns away to hide his smile but everyone clearly caught it as they burst out laughing.

For the rest of the shoot, Andrew is super giggly and distracted but it doesn't matter, he'll make Adam edit it all out. Nobody (else) has to know about this.


End file.
